Fossil

Around the 1970s, a scientist brought a fossil from Africa back to his office in America.

To obtain good specimens of fossils, scientists often went through great lengths. Sometimes they even risked their lives. For example, this scientist himself had once climbed down into a sinkhole in Mexico only to discover that a large part of the earth's crust had collapsed below him.

His name was Samuel Cahnman. He was a paleontologist who specialized in the fossils of dinosaurs. He had worked for many years in an old building on the campus of Yale University. The building had been built in 1752 and was known as Old College. It had not been used much since then, its windows broken, floorboards rotten, and pigeons lived inside it. But Cahnman liked working there because he felt at home among dead things.

There had always been many strange reports about dinosaur fossils being found in places far away from where they lived. But this one he brought back was not of a dinosaur, it was a new kind of animal the size of a cat. In fact, it looked nothing like any animal ever discovered before. It had no teeth or claws; instead, it had four legs and two arms with long fingers tipped by sharp nails. It was covered with skin that seemed to be made up of millions of tiny scales. There was also a small mouth just above its long neck.

Cahnman called his colleague and friend Dr. James C. Marr, who happened to be an expert at ancient organisms, especially in the field of fossils. The fossilized prehistoric creature was not only very rare but also intact, which meant it was highly valuable. They both agreed that it might well be a previously unknown species, but to make sure, they needed to put more time and energy into it.

They spent a whole year studying the fossil. The two scientists became completely obsessed with it. They even moved out of their apartments in order to spend every waking hour working on it. However, that's not the point. When they scanned the fossil trying to make a model of this ancient creature, they found something inside the stone, something like a piece of pyrite, a cube lie a lipstick, 3cm x 3cm x 9 cm. That's what they thought first: a piece of some kind o mineral. As paleontologists, they put so much time into this fossil and wanted to understand everything about it, including its composition. They took samples of the rock and tried to find out more details, but they didn't even have a clue about this tiny cube after months' work. Then, one day, Marr noticed something strange when he was looking at the screen.

He saw a little black spot, barely visible, on the side of the cube, and suddenly, the whole picture changed. The tiny black spot was actually a symbol.

The symbol was a triangle with a circle around it as if it had been drawn by a child. Cahnman called it a stick figure. It reminded him of a drawing he had seen in school because years ago, he had studied art history. He remembered how children used to draw pictures on the walls of their houses. Those drawings had simple shapes such as triangles and circles, but those pictures were not just scribbles or doodles. According to the story, those images had strong meaning and significance behind them. This symbol, Cahnman thought, was similar to the drawings he had seen in the past, which gave him a hint that the fossil could be connected to another ancient culture or aliens.

For another long time, they worked together in order to interpret the meaning of the symbols. They considered all possibilities. The most obvious interpretation was that the cube belonged to an alien civilization, and it could be the remains of an extraterrestrial spaceship. Or, it could be a piece of a spacecraft that was buried underground; meanwhile, it would make sense if the symbol came from an older civilization. But nothing conclusive they had reached.

At last, Samuel decided to call an expert, a friend, a famous geologist at Harvard University. His name was Dr. Robert.

Robert examined the fossil carefully and then asked Samuel why he had called him.

"Well," Samuel started hesitantly, "I want to know how this thing got here,"

Samuel explained to him that he'd never seen anything like it before. It looked like a piece of a mineral, but he doubted it was artificial. Still, there wasn't any explanation for it.

Robert said, "Don't worry about it. You're not missing anything. It's just a piece of pyrite. Pyrite is everywhere on Earth. There must be millions of tons of it here."

"You mean it's natural?"

"Yes, of course."

"How can you be sure?"

"Hmm…," Robert mumbled. Then he turned around and went to the shelf behind him. There was a pile of books on top of it. He picked one book up, opened it, and started reading aloud.

"In 1848, a group of scientists discovered a mysterious fossil in the mountains of Colorado. They named it 'Piltdown man'. At first glance, it looks like a human skull. But when they studied it closely, they realized it was fake. It was made by a British amateur naturalist, Charles Dawson. In fact, the entire fossil collection was fake. The whole story was a hoax, designed to fool people into thinking that humans evolved from apes. The fraud lasted for over 50 years until the truth came out."

"Are you saying my fossil is fake?" Samuel was a little angry somehow.

"No, I don't think so. You're too smart to fall for such a trick. Besides, I've been studying this kind of thing since I was a student. I'm sure your fossil is real. But…"

"But what?"

"But either it's natural, which you think of the otherwise, or it's fake. What else it could be?"

"I'm not satisfied by your words, and I need more information about it."

Robert nodded and went to the counter. Then he poured himself a cup of coffee. He sat down and started talking. He talked about the history of this kind of discovery. When people discovered fossils, they often didn't know whether to believe them or not. Some fossils were faked, others weren't. But sometimes, a fossil was discovered that actually did look like something else. For instance, in 1830 a scientist discovered a fossil of a marine reptile with a hole in it. It looked exactly like the fossil of a whale with a big hole in the middle. Other scientists claimed it was a fish, while some said it was a monster with a mouth full of sharp teeth. Finally, they decided it was neither a fish nor a whale, but a piece of wood.

"Cut it, Robbert!" Samuel interrupted him abruptly, "I got it: you said you believe me, but, actually, you don't."

Samuel came to the door of his office and opened it, standing by, not looking at Robbert. He was a scientist who didn't know how to show his fury properly to an acquaintance, and opening the door to drive his friend away was the strongest signal of his deep anger.

"Okay! Okay! My bad," Robert lifted up his palms, realizing that his old friend was quite angry at him. He continued, "I can help and call a friend of mine in the National Lab, who can touch the most advanced pieces of equipment in the world. Maybe he has an answer for us."

Samuel didn't talk for about one minute, thinking about the goodwill and solution from Robert.

"Great," Samuel said, trying to calm himself. "But hurry up, because I need to publish this discovery as soon as possible. Also, tell him that this is an invaluable fossil, no one will break or cut it."

"My friend in the National Lab, he is also a scientist, remember? No one is going to mess with your precious." Robert laughed.

Samuel never knew that was the last time he saw his fossil at the time of then. Month after month, he called Robert, called the National Lab, and he even warned to sue them, still, he didn't get his fossil back except for an excuse as "Hold on, hold on, we're about to figure out what it is".

One day, Samuel received a phone call from a strange man, who introduced himself as Albert. He said he was a friend of Robert and that he had come across Samuel's research papers. He wanted to talk about Samuel's discovery, who ended up a CIA agent after they met somewhere. Then the agent told Samuel that he could continue his research as usual, only if he would forget about the fossil.

"What? Why?" Samuel was angered by this man, his face turned red. "It is my fossil!"

"Because we are going to use it for our own purposes," a CIA agent answered.

"What?" This was a shock to Samuel. He couldn't believe what he heard. How could anyone be so shameless? He was ready to go to prison for this crime.

"Yes, you heard right. We have a plan to use your fossil in our secret project."

"Why should I care about you or your secret project?" Samuel interrupted angrily, "Look, I don't give a shit if you're from NASA, the FBI, or the CIA; whatever you are, just give me back my Goddamn fossil!"

"I'm sorry, but we cannot return it," he finally said. "However, we can do something for you, like helping you with your research funding, if you agree. You know what I mean?"

Samuel was silent. He knew it was impossible to win against the government; meanwhile, he didn't want to lose his fossil anyway. On the other hand, he understood that the agent was offering him a way out.

"Secret project you said, what is it?" Samuel asked reluctantly. He realized that he had just lost his temper, and tried to calm down.

"It's top-secret," the CIA agent answered. "So please don't ask me more about it. Just do what we ask you to do." These agents were so goddam calm no matter what.

After that, Samuel didn't hear anything from the CIA anymore. He didn't see his precious fossil either. Until after some time, he realized that, because of the secret project, the fossil would never be returned to him. After about half a year, his research funding got a big money from an anonymous donation.

Meanwhile, the secret project was going on. Samuel never knew what was happening behind his back. He continued his research, published his paper, and retired from science. He got married and had kids and grandchildren. He lived a happy life without knowing what the secret project was all about.

The happy part was that Samuel finished his research and published several scientific papers in the field of paleontology. Later on, he wrote a few novels based on his experience as a paleontologist. One of his stories won a prize at the annual science fiction convention in Boston. Another novel became popular among teenagers. People loved his characters and stories. Even though he never expected his writing career to be successful, it eventually led to great success. Many young readers grew fond of him. Now, almost everyone knows the name, Sam Cahnman.

As far as Samuel's fossil was concerned, nobody ever found it. To Samuel, it disappeared forever and was a mystery that remained unsolved till his death.

However, he still wondered, from time to time, about that tiny cube that was hidden deep within the fossil hundreds of million years ago. He regretted leaving it behind. It felt like he left his heart at the bottom of the sea.

[ Epilogue ]

Years later, after many decades passed, Samuel died peacefully in his sleep.

The minutes before his death, his mind kept going back to the time when he was an ambitious scientist, eager to find answers. He remembered his friends and colleagues, whom he had met. He thought about Robert, the geologist, who helped him interpret the meaning of that symbol.

Before he breathed his last breath, however, he whispered quietly to himself, "If only I had known…."